European Lawmakers Urge Severing Ties with Anti-Israel Groups

Sixty European Parliament members called on EU foreign affairs chief Mogherini to stop funding and cut ties with anti-Israel organizations.

In an impressive show of support for Israel, 60 members of the European Parliament called on EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini to cut funding and minimize ties to anti-Israel organizations, chiefly the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.

The European Jewish Press reported Tuesday that the group of MEPs, from different parties and who are being led by representatives of the four major political groups, sent a letter to Mogherini calling on her to marginalize, both financially and politically, the EU’s contacts with anti-Israel organizations such as BDS, which have inciting virulent anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism under the pretense of exercising freedom of speech.

In the letter, the MEPs “call upon ensuring that no public funds go to organizations calling for a boycott of the State of Israel, and to instruct agencies not to engage with companies, organizations or other entities involved with the BDS movement.”

The signatories urged Mogherini to “address the incitement to hatred and violence and discriminatory practice of calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel.”

MEP Cristian Preda, foreign affairs coordinator for the European People’s Party, the largest political group, and co-initiator of the letter, underlined his party’s opposition to calls for the suspension of the bilateral agreements with Israel that were voiced by extreme left-wing MEPs.

“It’s in the interest of this House, and of our citizens, to see an upgrade in the partnership agreement with Israel. We should not allow the current stalemate in the peace process to dictate the terms of our relationship with Israel,” he stated, according to EJP

Swedish MEP and President of Europe Israel Public Affairs (EIPA) political Board Lars Adaktusson underlined that “the Union, and the Parliament, is in danger of being deemed irrelevant as a peace broker if it fails to address the incitement on its own soil against Israel,” EJP reported

Ioan Mircea Pascu, vice president of the European Parliament, said that boycotting ties with Israel, a leader in the international intelligence and defense community, could prove counterproductive to the security interests of the EU.

The BDS movement promotes financial, academic and cultural boycotts against Israel, ostensibly as a nonviolent struggle against the so-called “Israeli occupation.” Critics say its activities are a modern form of anti-Semitism and that its true objective is to destroy the State of Israel.

By: United with Israel Staff

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